


Too Late

by eragon19



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Injured Character, Loss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 02:59:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2835557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eragon19/pseuds/eragon19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Khan finds Pavel after a bloody battle, unfortunately he's too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Late

Khan looks around wildly, the battle was over but during he’d lost sight of Pavel. He’d last seen him by the ship, helping the wounded, then the chaos had separated them. Khan walks swiftly across the field littered with the corpses of their enemies. These foolish creatures who thought they could kidnap Khan and his crew. Well, they knew better now. Khan kept searching, the knot in his stomach tightening with each moment he didn't see Pavel.

Suddenly, he heard it. A soft groan that un-augmented ears might have missed. Khan takes off, following the weak sounds. Finally, just behind a small rise in the earth he finds Pavel, lying on his back in the grass, his shirt covered in blood, so much blood….

Khan’s heart seems to stop. Pavel weakly turns his head to him, his eyes glassy with pain but recognition still sparking in their depts.

“Khan…”

The weak noise throws Khan into action. In a second he’s at Pavel’s side. With one hand on Pavel’s forehead for comfort, he assesses the damage. It’s bad, worse than Khan originally thought. There’s a deep gash running from Pavel’s left hip to just under his lower right ribs, and it’s bubbling blood….so much blood.

Khan raises his head looking for a member of his crew to help. He sees Rani in the distance. He signals to her frantically, his cool demeanor shattered as Pavel writhes in pain next to him.

“It’ll be okay Pavel,” Khan says, looking down at his friend, his lover, his everything. “We’ll take you back to the ship and it’ll be fine.”

Pavel shuts his eyes and shakes from head to foot, whimpering. The noise rips at Khan’s heart. Rani appears at Khan’s side then, her eyes widening when he sees Pavel.

“Get a stretcher from the med bay and some of the others to stabilize it.”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do…” Rani says, her eyes downcast.

“Just do it!” Khan barks, his throat tight with fear.

Without a word she takes off, running at a speed only his kind can obtain.

Khan keeps petting Pavel, trying to soothe him without moving him too much. Pavel gurgles, the blood starting to leak out of his mouth now. His arms twitch and Khan recognizes it as a request to be held.

“I can’t move you love,” Khan says, using a pet name he’s never used before. Now he wishes he’d used it every day they’d been together.

Pavel shakes his head, his eyes pleading with Khan. He chokes again, Khan gently slides his hand under Pavel’s head, lifting it slightly so Pavel won’t choke on his own blood. Then he relents and carefully pulls Pavel up so his back rests against Khan’s thighs, his head cradled in Khan’s arms.

“It’ll be okay,’ Khan croaks, his vision blurring.

Pavel coughs, but he seems to be breathing better in this position. His mouth works as if he’s trying to speak.

“Shh,” Khan whispers, rocking Pavel gently in his arms.

Pavel shakes his head again, takes a deep shuddering breathe and says, “I don’t….not much…..left”

Khan just shakes his head, curling himself around Pavel to rest his forehead against his.

“I love you,” Pavel breathes against Khan’s ear, his voice barely a whisper.

“I love you too,” Khan says, his voice thick with unshed tears.

_Why isn’t Rani back yet!_

Pavel let out a choked sob, his legs jerking. Khan pulls back slightly, so he can see Pavel’s eyes. Pavel’s eyes are filled with tears and pain and so much sadness.

“I wish….we…had more…time” he breathes, his voice slick with blood.

Khan shakes his head, running a hand down the side of Pavel’s face, his thumbing stroking the delicate skin next to his eye. Pavel manages a weak smile, despite the pain, and Khan leans forward and lightly pecks him on the lips.

“We will have more time” he says, leaning over to rest his forehead against Pavel’s again. “We have too.”

Pavel lets out another choked sob. Khan knows, deep and his bones, that these words are lie, that the wound is too deep, that he’s about to lose the most important thing in his universe.

Pavel closes his eyes, his body becoming heavier in Khan’s arms as his breathing becomes shallower. Khan curls even closer around him, choking back his tears and whispering a litany of “I love yous” into Pavel’s ear. Pavel lets out one last shuddering breath, before his body goes completely limp in Khan’s arms.

“Pavel” Khan whimpers, pulling back and shaking him slightly, “ _Pavel!_ ” he cries, shaking him harder. Pavel lies there, his body limp and chest still, his pretty hazel eyes blank and glassy. Khan clings to him rocking back and forth as his universe falls apart around him.

Pavel is gone.

Beautiful, sweet, loving little Pavel is gone. Khan will never hold him again, never kiss him again, and never get to see him smile or hear him laugh again.

Khan feels his anguish building, his hurt. Everything he’d never told Pavel flashes through his mind, everything he’d never get to do with Pavel….the agony courses through him, the shock at the loss, the pain….

Throwing his head back he lets out a sling, gut wrenching wail.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so so sorry.


End file.
